Caroline Hall says her brother Shawn is an addict.
Shawn Hall, 33, has been living on the streets of Port Alberni for months now, she says.
“I really care about him. He’s a good person, he just got in a really bad place. I’m just hoping one day he’ll get better ‘cause I don’t know... He’s my baby brother,” said Hall.
“I deal with my brother a lot. I usually hold on to his paycheque and distribute it out to him throughout the month, so he doesn’t spend it all at once,” she shared.
Shawn is Indigenous, with Cree and likely Hesquiaht First Nation roots. He is a repeat offender with a criminal history dating back to at least 2011. His past charges include break and enter with intent to commit offence and possession of stolen property under $5,000.
On Aug. 17 Port Alberni RCMP said Shawn was charged with assaulting a peace officer, wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer and breach of release order.
In an RCMP media statement issued the day after Shawn’s arrest, police said he fled from officers, and a brief foot pursuit ensued, ending in a nearby in an alley between 6th and 7th Avenue.
A witness captured part of incident on video and posted it on Facebook with the title ‘Port Alberni police brutality’. The video, which has since gone viral, shows Shawn being taken down by two officers, held face down on the ground. The footage documents Shawn being struck by one of the officers, including three times in the side and back of the head with an elbow. As the male officer holds down Shawn and handcuffs him, a female officer restrains his legs and assists in the arrest.
“I was very, very upset,” said Hall after watching the video. “I don’t know why the (cop) needed to keep punching him in the head. He’d already been on the ground and the (cop) is like three times the size of my brother. All he had to do was sit on him and he can’t really move much. My brother is maybe 150 pounds soaking wet.”
Inspector Kim Bruce, detachment commander for the Port Alberni RCMP, said in a statement issued by police that “while use of force by police in any arrest may be disturbing to onlookers, it is important to look at the totality, rather than the result.”
“The Criminal Code provides us with the authority to use force, and it is not something we take lightly,” said Bruce.
Hall thinks the officer went overboard.
“If he would had hit him one time I would have understood, but he didn’t need to continuously keep hitting him. He was already on the ground and he wasn’t moving and he elbowed him in the head again,” she said.
The BC First Nations Justice Council (BCFNJC) weighed in on the incident.
“This is another example of excessive force by police, and it happens far too often,” wrote Boyd Peters, BCFNJC vice-chair, in a statement sent to Ha-Shilth-Sa. “Events like this don’t instill confidence from the public, especially Indigenous people who are continually harmed by police. There needs to be stronger oversight to address and eventually prevent police brutality. And there needs to be trauma-informed processes to de-escalate these types of events,”
During the process of Shawn’s Aug. 17 arrest, police said they observed a sharp object in his hands, and that he allegedly resisted arrest and attacked the officer.
“Police had to use force to gain compliance and prevent further injuries,” stated the RCMP in a media release.
Hall spoke to her brother on the phone about a week after the incident. She says he told her that he did run, but he claims he did not provoke the officer.
“He didn’t have any weapons or anything in his hand, but he did have glass pipes in his pocket and a bag of weed,” she told the Ha-Shilth-Sa.
Shawn was not offered, nor did he seek, medical assistance after being struck in the face multiple times by an RCMP officer, according to Hall.
If a situation requires it in such incidents, officers do provide or seek medical assistance for someone, said RCMP media relations officer Cpl. Alex Bérubé.
“All RCMP officers are trained (and are required) to have a valid First Aid certificate,” wrote Cpl. Bérubé in an email. “They render assistance, provide first aid and contact medical trained professionals such as paramedics to assist as the situation(s) dictate. If an individual, whether under arrest, detention or [is] simply in need of medical attention, efforts will be made to provide that service.”
Shawn Hall has an Aug. 29 Port Alberni Courts appearance.
- With a file from Eric Plummer
